I am an Indian

Ideally, there is a first mover's advantage, which, unfortunately India has seldom had. If that wasn't enough, we don't even inculcate learning-from-the-first-mover's-mistakes advantage. So what have you ? Most of the newly born and toddler book retail chain stores in India not learning from their grandpa like stores in the West. They seem to be repeating the same mistakes, if not actually inventing graver ones. Book buyers looking at what gives them better profit on paper rather than understanding what a book has to offer is certainly a doomsday call in book-selling. And then you have salespersons in book-cum-music-cum-gift stores who don't know their Erich Seagal from their Enrique or their Jagjit Singh from Khushwant Singh. Singh is King after all, same difference !

A great lesson for them could be Foyles Bookstore at Charing Cross Road, London. An amazing bookshop where the salesperson is also the book buyer. In one stroke, they seem to have eliminated most of the recent day problems in book retailing and seem to be doing
wonderfully well.

This is nothing madamji ( pardon me sirji, i prefer concentrating on what deserves concentration), look at what we have managed to do with the deadly-but-let's-not-call-it-so Swine Flu...err H1N1 virus... lest the pigs take offense. We knew the whole world was getting it; we knew we have cities with some of the highest density of population in the world; we knew we have the maximum number of young people in the world, yet what did we do ? I can give you a first hand account. A brave me with my wife and our two young angels (did you hear devils, that was my wife, sorry) arrived at I.G.I.A, New Delhi straight from New Jersey, USA in the middle of the H1N1 scare. The anxious masked young girls sitting behind the desk looked at us with an expression that said don't-be-angry-but-even-we-don't-know-what-we-are-doing-here and quickly parroted what they had been trained to say — " Do any of you have fever ? Or a cold ? Or a cough? If you get any of these symptoms, do call me dearies, for now, please leave." This, in a country where confirmed patients run away from hospitals and ministers have to personally ensure that they are fetched back.

I don't know why i am sounding so skeptical. I am an Indian. Upar wala sab theeek karega. He will take care of all of us. After all, He is the one who also created the pigs.

The Reading Effect

In economics, they have what they say is the 'lipstick effect', wherein, during the times of meltdowns, the sale of lipsticks goes up significantly. The reason is understandable — lipsticks don't cost much and have a special 'feel good' effect.

I believe books are much better — most of them cost as little as a lipstick, sometimes even lesser, and the 'feel good' effect is far more endearing. Not to forget, a book is not a consumable and gives us wisdom that may change our lives for good.

So go ahead, intuitively pick up a book from the millions available (don't bother about those funny bestseller lists) and beat the 'meltdown blues'.

That also makes publishing one of the most recession-proof professions, so better still, join it !

Boycotting Books from Pakistan

So what is more important — nationalism or universal brotherhood? While Pakistan relentlessly bleeds India with a thousand cuts, we continue to create stars out of Pakistani singers, comedians and writers. The nation of Gandhi seems to be following his philosophy of offering the other cheek when slapped on one religiously. We are the big brother — forever resilient and pluralist. In that sense, is the Oxford Bookstore's decision to ban books written by Pakistani authors the right one? Or is it merely a knee-jerk reaction?

Well, if they have done it because it's a well thought out stand and they would replicate it across India, we should respect their decision and maybe even follow suit depending on our free will. But if they have done it because they are scared of extra constitutional powers or out of some pressure, all of us who believe in the power of democracy should condemn it in no uncertain terms. Our freedom of speech and independence are our strengths and we must do everything in our means to preserve them.

Forced bans are absolutely unacceptable, voluntary boycotts though are always welcome. Remember we live in India, not Pakistan.